Introduction

As we come to the end of the year I think it is good to do some historical thinking from a biblical point of view. So today, in keeping with the theme from last week, my topic is "Man’s chief end."  This language is familiar from the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism , "what is the chief end of man" which is to "glorify God and enjoy him forever." This profound truth is so simple that it can be learned by very young children. My son, Jonathan, surprised me with his ability to answer the first five questions of the children’s catechism from listening to me go over these questions with his older brother, Rich. He was in diapers (about two years old) and I could ask him, "why did God make you and all things?" and he would reply, "for His own glory." This is a great truth to be confronted with and to become aware of in the earliest years of one’s life on earth. It is not only good at the beginning but it is also a challenging truth to think about at every stage of life. When we come back here we gain perspective on the days of our lives in a special way. To do this, I want to discuss man’s chief end by considering its ground and its fulfillment.

1A. The Ground (or foundation) of Man’s Chief End

To root man’s chief end properly we have to think hard and long on God’s end in creation, providence, and redemption. The ground of our chief end is God’s chief end. This is so vital that it bears repeating. So let’s reflect on a characterization, a clarification, and an implication of God’s chief end. By the time we reach the implication we should clearly see how man’s chief end is grounded in God’s chief end.

1B. A Characterization of God’s Chief End

In a word, here is how I want to characterize it. This end is a comprehensive God-centered purpose.

First, working backwards, this end is a purpose. Paul says, "from him and through him and to him are all things (Rom. 11:36)." Notice the key prepositions: from, through, and to (NIV, literally we have out of or out from, by means of or through, and unto or toward). It is from this last preposition (unto or toward) that the notion of an end is derived. Things are moving toward something. That to which they move is their end. So the end is not simply the final unit in a series like "The End" on the last page of a book. Instead, the end has the richer sense of purpose. There is something to be attained, an objective, or a goal. Life is not meaningless. It is not without purpose. There is a goal. The end toward which things move is the goal set for them. This first point is very simple and basic and stresses the fact that the end that we are talking about is not a final terminal point but a purpose (goal, objective).

Second, it is a God-centered purpose. What is the goal, the objective, the purpose or end of all things? It all moves toward Him. It is all for Him. Specifically, it is for Him in the sense that it is for His glory. All is for Him; to Him be the glory forever, amen. Thus He has made the display of His majesty, beauty, perfection, and excellence the grand purpose of history.

Third, it is a comprehensive God-centered purpose. Comprehensiveness is suggested by the relationship that exists between God’s purpose and the series leading toward it. For thought, let me ask you this question: "In Romans 11:36 with the prepositions (from, through, to), where is the beginning, the middle, and the end of history referred to?" To guide you a little to what I am getting at, "Which one of these prepositions, and only one, makes reference to the beginning, the middle, and the end of history?" Now let’s exclude two of the terms. Each preposition refers to all things as from, through, and to Him. So why do we not have the beginning point in the term "from"? It is because this preposition points us back to the origin of the very first moment of history (all things including the very beginning thing come from Him). Why do we not have the ending point of history in the word "to"? It is because this preposition points us forward to the goal beyond the last moment of history (all things including the very ending thing are for Him). Only one term is left: "through." This term refers to the providential governance of all things from the first moment of time, across the days, weeks, months, and years to the very last moment. It is a remarkably packed way of saying that God works all things (beginning, middle, end) after the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11).

But God is the First and the Last

This question then arises: "What does it mean when Scripture says that God is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, and the Alpha and the Omega?

1) First, in Isaiah 44:6-8 the Lord is the Rock beyond which there is no other (v. 8). He is the Rock as the Lord of history who alone can foretell the future (v. 7). As the first and the last He is king and redeemer. Being first is not first within history nor is being last a reference to the last within history. First refers to origin: the beginning has its beginning or origination in Him. He is its source existing before the beginning and giving birth to it. Last refers to purpose in the sense that the last moment is not the end for which the moments exist. No, they exist for a purpose, for God’s purpose. Being last, His purpose rules (cf. Isaiah 48:12 in its context: "I am the first and the last." He laid the foundations of the earth so He is before the beginning. And He is working out His purpose through history as exemplified here in the case of His chosen ally, the Persian king, Cyrus!).

2) Second, this idea is applied to Christ in the final book of Scripture. The language of first and last (Rev. 1:17) is contained in the reference to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet (Rev. 1:8, the alpha and the omega, who is, was and is to come). He is the first and last letters in the sense that His meaning and purpose is impressed on every fact from beginning to end. This is striking so I say it again: every fact from the beginning to the end, all that exists outside of God, has meaning and purpose attached to it, specifically, the meaning and purpose it has through the life work of Christ "who is, was and is to come."

He is the Sovereign Lord of history in such a way that the words applied to God in the OT are applied to Him. He is the First and the Last (Rev. 1:17, Jesus said, "I am the First and the Last." Thus we are not to be afraid since His is the Living One who died but was raised and who holds the keys of death and Hades, v. 18). His redemptive purpose is tied into the fact that He is first and the last. His redemptive work is geared toward the last end, the final purpose. Beyond His work through His death and resurrection is the fact of this ultimate end beyond all that transpires in history. That ultimate end is His glory (Rev. 1:6, as each part of the series serves that end so the whole series is guided to that ultimate end).

This is huge, profound, and magnificent

All things that have been created by God and that are sustained by His providential governance have been created and are providentially sustained for Him. If you ask, "what is the whole series for?" then you begin to take in some of the magnitude of God’s purpose. It is all for Him, it is all for His glory. Nothing is left out of the picture. Nothing occurs unless it serves to magnify the glory of God.

This is profoundly comprehensive purpose. I say again: It is huge, profound, and magnificent. It takes in the whole earth, the galaxy in which the earth orbits, the galaxies, the universe, the heavens and the earth and all their host.

All things past, present, and future serve the singular end of God’s glory. His glory must be His chief and ultimate end. It is His most valued and sought after goal. It is His ultimate purpose that does not serve as a means to some further end but it is that which is sought for its own sake and for God’s own delight. It is the final end where all subordinate ends finally come to rest.

2B. A Clarification regarding God’s chief end

We need to clarify the humility/pride question. Remarkably, humility does not apply to God because humility involves the acknowledgment of someone greater than oneself. Thus for us to be humble means that we recognize our comparative smallness before the infinite greatness of God (and how others are this way and that better than ourselves). Humility could only apply to Christ in terms of the mystery of the incarnation. As a true man He humbled Himself to do always and only the will of God and therefore He humbled Himself to death, even death on the cross. But as God, Jesus is not humble. Humility does not apply to God because it involves the acknowledgement of someone greater and there is no one greater than God is. He is the greatest and best of beings.

Now we might think that if He is not humble then He must be proud or egotistical since pride is usually thought of as the opposite of humility. To be brief in making this clarification, we simply need to define egoism as an undue estimate of oneself: "do not think of yourself more highly than you ought." So God is not egotistical or proud because knowing Himself perfectly He knows that He is the greatest and best of beings. There is no undue estimate of Himself. That is impossible.

Therefore humility and pride do not apply to God because on one hand as the greatest there are none greater for Him to humbly acknowledge and on the other hand knowing that He is the greatest prevents any prideful overconfidence or overestimation. As a matter of fact, He rightfully takes delight in the reflection of His glory in and through all things (created and directed to His goal). God of course delights in the reflection of His glory. He is delighted to do this in truth knowing Himself perfectly.

So for clarification God is not egotistical nor is He mutable in seeking His own glory as the great, ultimate, and final end of all things. Pride does not apply to God because He knows Himself perfectly and has no undue estimate of Himself.

3B. An Implication of God’s chief.

Now that we have characterized and clarified God’s chief end it is time to note that His great end must also be ours. This is both a logical and an ethical must. There are four lines of thought here by implication.

1) Because everything exists for God, for the ultimate end of manifesting His glory, then that must be what we exist for. Of all the things that we ought to do, this ultimate end is an ultimate ought (of what we ought to be).

2) Because we are His image bearers who are made for the express purpose of reflecting His glory, then it is a fitting duty that we now pursue all our days on this earth. This is an ethical duty par excellence because it is a duty that arises from human nature by creation.

3) Because God seeks this goal more than any other and He seeks this goal as a final end in itself with nothing further beyond it for which it is a means, then as His children, we ought to follow His example. He seeks this grand end as His chief end; therefore, we ought to seek it likewise as our chief end. It is His ultimate end so it should also be our ultimate end. For Him all other ends serve this end; likewise, all other ends that we pursue should serve this end of bringing honor and glory to His name.

4) Because glorifying God was the chief end of the work of Christ and because we are to follow His example and walk in His steps, then glorifying God ought to be the ultimate and chief end of our work. In the garden He said, "Father, glorify your name." As this end sustained Him in suffering so it should sustain us in suffering. As it was His main goal it should likewise be our main goal.

This is of course confirmed all through Scripture. "Whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31).

2A. The fulfillment of man’s chief end

We come now to some of the "how tos" of man’s chief end. We need to focus on how to glorify God. You may expect that it begins with prayer. If you are going to make glorifying God your most important and final end, then you must begin with prayer in at least three ways.

1B. First, pray against self-glorification

This is the point of Psalm 115:1, "not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory because of your love and faithfulness." For emphasis the negative is repeated. "Not, we say again, not to us." The glory does not belong to us and should not be given to us. Interestingly, this is made a matter of prayer: "O Lord may this be avoided among us." This expresses a conscious recognition that we tend toward self-glorification (self-praise and exaltation as implied by 115:18).

Therefore, as much as we ought to develop our reasoning skills as Christians, it is a caution to pray that we not become overconfident in what we know. We should not expect the glorification of our reason, intelligence, and intellectual accomplishments. We must pray against this asking the Lord to keep our learning in proper perspective. We have only what we have received from God’s loving hand. Intellectual development is by the blessing of God in every way we could possibly imagine. He has given us reasoning capabilities adapted to His revelation of Himself in both the created world and in Scripture. We have the astounding privilege of thinking God’s thoughts after Him. And to know the gospel, He must give sight to blind eyes.

2B. Second, pray for the glorification of God’s name

"To your name give glory" is the positive side of Psalm 115:1. A name stands for a person. In Scripture it refers to the character and attributes of God, to what He is like in quality and perfection. It is the prayer of the saint (saintly praying) that the beauty, excellence, and greatness of God’s name be magnified, displayed, and extolled.

The same direction of prayer is found in Psalm 79:9 and in an amazing context. Prayer is made for deliverance from two enemies: sin and human opponents (from self and from others). There is a powerful concept here that is being trivialized commonly in cursing with the phrase: "for God’s sake" (for the glory of your name, for your name’s sake). What powerful and important words are these that slip off the tongue without the foggiest thought! It is prayer in cursing! In prayer we properly seek the goal of deliverance. But the ultimate goal is "for God’s sake." It is for Him, for His honor and glory that we are to pray for our deliverance and well being.

Ezekiel 36:36 the Sovereign Lord says that He is going to give new hearts in order to save sinners but it is "not for your sake" but "for the sake of my holy name." To fulfill our chief end, we need to pray for the glorification of God’s name even when we seek His blessing. His glory is a higher and greater end than our good. So we seek our good for His glory.

But it might be asked, "How then do we give honor to our parents or those in authority, or honor to whom honor is due if we are to pray against honor to ourselves but for honor to God’s name?" This is a good question and needs more than I will state here but we can answer it by reference to ultimate and subordinate goals. When we pray this way (not for us but for your name) we saying that our good, our pleasure, our blessing, and our honor is not and can never be our chief or ultimate end. The glory we seek to possess in the face of Christ by the gospel we seek for the end beyond all ends, the glory of God (not merely for our honor).

Thus the Lord’s prayer begins with petition for the glory of God: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." We are to pray "that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known; and that he would dispose all things to his own glory" (WSC, A 101).

So we do not pray that Westminster Reformed Church be honored, that I be honored as pastor, or you be honored as husbands, wives, and so forth except as blessings in this regard specifically and directly to bring honor and glory to God.

3B. Pray for one another to the end that God be glorified

Philippians 1:9-11 is classic in this connection. Prayer for the saints is made with certain goals in mind: that love abound, that it abound more and more, that it abound more and more in knowledge and discernment. And discernment is sought for a further goal that of being able to test "things that differ" and choose the best. Moreover, wise choosing has an even further goal, the goal of fruitfulness in righteous living. But all these goals are subordinate ends that serve a chief and ultimate end, which is the praise and glory of God. This is how we ought to pray for one another in a fundamental way.

If I have gotten even a portion of this message across then the principle of God’s glory will hit you like a ton of bricks and knock you off your feet (and to the posture of worship). It may leave you speechless or dumbfounded. It does that to me. It is a most humbling principle. And it is most comforting because Romans 8:28 is stabilized and balanced by Romans 11:36:

"God causes all things to work together for our good unto the chief and ultimate goal of His glory." That He is working all things for His glory and our good is both humbling and reassuring at the same time.